Having discussed the piling prep and the building of the the dock in the last blog, its time to write
about the boat lift installation One thing that most other boat lifts have that mine doesn't is a cradle. A cradle is used to support the boat from underneath so it will not be damaged in the lifting process. In my case I had four lift eyes (circular hooks) at the corners of the boat, which I could use to lift the boat with.
I never could get in touch with the manufacturer to verify that the lift eyes could be used to store the boat in the lifted position. Dad was the one who pointed them out to me but there was always a doubt in my mind that they would actually work There was no documentation that they were lift eyes which caused me to have a sort of horror movie playing over and over in my head that showed the boat being lifted to full height, then the pontoons would bend in the middle and then the boat would separate into two pieces. Would the boat break or be damaged when I lifted it for the first time?
To start it was necessary to lug seven 8" x 8" beams to the top of the pilings so that they could support the boat when it is pulled out of the water. Four of the beams, which I call the cross beams, would sit on top of the pilings and three would sit on top of the cross beams in their middle. Since they were heavy, large, awkward and had to go up high, I resorted to my good old friend the harbor freight battery operated winch to help me out.
In the picture below I show the winch and its supporting structure. To assist in lifting the beam I used a pink lifting sling from harbor freight. Also in the picture are the straps which tie the beams to the pilings with lag bolts. Finally, worth noting is the scaffolding which was very useful in getting the rig ready for a beam lift and putting on the beam straps.
Once the two end cross beams were placed, I attached a string line to the beam ends on the house side of the lift. This enabled me to precisely position the remaining two beams so they they were all even with each other.
Once all the cross beams were on, the 3 center beams were put on. Rather then use a winch I just man handled them onto the scaffolding and into their position. I think a couple of times the neighbors saw me struggling and asked me if I wanted help. I always said no because last thing I want is a neighbor to hurt themselves on my project. The center beams were attached to the cross beams with 15" lags. Needles to say it took a long time for the compressor to drive those bolts into the treated wood. All the beams are in position in the photo below.
The next step was to put on the pole supports. There are 4 supports down the center of the boat lift frame. Each support has two loops to hold the pole and three holes for bolts to secure it to the beam above. The bolts are actually through hole bolts and are 18" long. One support is shown in the picture below. As can be seen in the picture below there are 8" x 8" spacer blocks above the pole support and on either side of the cross beam. The two by fours on the side of the block are my extra pair of hands to hold the blocks in place before they were fastened. Also in the picture is the string to align the pole supports.
The string method for aligning the pole supports was inadequate. Since I had another pole which I
had purchased previously but was to short, I decide to cut it in half and thread it through 2 pole
supports at a time. This enabled me to precisely align the pole supports with each other. After alignment I used some marine grease to lubricate the pole supports so that the 30' pole
would slide easily though them.
Once the pole supports were in, I next had to prepare the 30' pole to accept the cable. This involved using the drill press to put the holes in the pole. Two holes were necessary to thread two cables through which would attach to the boat. Also it was necessary to drill a hole at the end where the motor sleeve attaches to the pole for a through bolt. The idea is that as the motor spins the pole and the cables wrap themselves on the pole and lift the boat.
Once the holes were drilled, I attempted to install the pole. However it was so awkward and high up. I just could not do it myself. So this situation turned out to be one of those times I made an exception to my stead fast rule of not asking people to help me on the project. Why do I have this rule? The work is too dangerous. I really don't want my friends or neighbors to get hurt. If a person is going to help you they should be insured somehow so there is quick payment for medical bills if they get hurt.
To get the job done, I called my buddy Glenn and my sister's husband Jeff over to help out. When Glenn showed up he came with his son Peter. When Jeff showed up I went over the strategy. Glenn would take the center tallest ladder in the middle of the boat and support the pole. One end of the pole was tied to the boat lift and the other could be perched on top of a tall tubing frame I had mounted at the back of the boat earlier. This provided Glenn with a method to rest when I was readying everything because the pole was heavy. Jeff would keep the boat straight so that the pole would line up with the pole supports. My job was to get on the furthermost ladder at the end and help Glenn slide the pole in.
In the beginning of the operation I stepped off and on the boat a couple of times, one time of which was to guide the end of the pole into the pole support and get rid of the rope that held it. As I stepped on and off the boat Glenn would say "woaa" as his ladder would shake and he would nearly fall off. This is when we put a hard hat on Peter and brought him in to stabilize Glenn's ladder at the bottom.
Once the end of the pole was in the pole support, I got on the back ladder and Glenn and I pushed the pole into the supports. For something that could have been a major pain in the ass, the task actually went smoothly and lasted only a couple of minutes. Which is good because Glen had to take Peter to practice in 15 minutes and Jeff had also other stuff to do. It pays to do quality prep work to set yourself of for a difficult task.
Below shows some of the set up that was used to place the pole. Not shown is the ladder and the tubing frame on the back of the boat. We really needed one more person for photography.
Next I placed the boat lift motor on the pole and then rotated it up to attach it to the beams. Then I threaded the cables through the pole and some pulleys I had installed. The last step was to put the hooks and cable weights on the ends of the
cable. This was easily done by using 5 cable clamps and a cable eye to
wrap the cable around. Below is what the installation looks like.
The manufacturer of the hoist I used can be found at his link. For some information on boat lifts I found this link useful.
So the moment was at hand. It was time to lift the boat out of the water. Keep in mind that the boat had been sitting in the water for 1.5 years. Originally I was going to knock out the boat lift in three months and and then work on my other permits which include a garage expansion and cedar covered porch. But it didn't happen that way. And for 1.5 years the boat sat in the brackish water.
For the entire 1.5 years, I was worried about electrolysis. In fact I had electrolysis damage before I got the boat painted. There was some pitting on the back of the pontoons where the boat was not painted and was under water. Because of this I used a wire brush to polish the pitted surface and used Gluvit epoxy sealer to prevent any further damage. Then I got the boat bottom painted at a higher level then the old paint job so no bare aluminum was ever under water and put on some new sacrificial anodes. To see how bad electrolysis can be see this link
In addition to the electrolysis worry, I worried about Marine growth damage. Even though I had gotten the pontoon boat hull painted with anti fouling paint, there was a lot of marine growth on the boat such as barnacles and algae. In fact there was so much growth, the boat speed had been reduced from 18 miles and hour to 10 miles an hour.
Before I started the lifting process I watched this video which shows the catastrophes of what can go wrong with lifting boats. I then reviewed my internal horror movie where the boat breaks in half. As a final check I went over all the fastened parts in the boat lift. Shackles pins tight...check, pulley bolts tight....check, cable clamps nuts tight....check, through bolts tight....check and finally motor sleeve through bolt tight....check. It was go time and I was about to find out if my pontoon boat would withstand the lifting process without a supportive cradle.
I lifted the boat partially out the water to see if I could witness any stresses. I didn't see anything major. I let it sit for awhile and then lifted it all the way out of the water. Once I got it out of the water it seemed to be fine. Success! Below is a picture of poor neglected Lulu out of the water for the first time in 1.5 years. You can clearly see the marine growth.
Having successfully raised the boat out of the water after 1.5 years it was time to break out the putty knife and start scraping. It took me about a week of part time work to get the barnacles off. They came off pretty easy actually, I just dragged my feet because it was disgusting, smelly and it was a little scary being under a two thousand pound boat dangling in the air.
I attribute the ease in which the barnacles came off to the ablative bottom paint on the boat. Also I kept the barnacles wet; because, I heard it was easier to get them off wet than dry. Not really sure if that was true but that's what I did. After cleaning off the barnacles, I was pleased to find no evidence of electrolysis or marine growth damage on the pontoons. Double Success!
There was actually one scary moment in using the boat lift. The pulley nut fell off when the boat was in the air. This was because the pulley rotates the axle bolt which took the nut off. Luckily I got the boat down before the bolt came out and the boat came crashing down. I immediately applied Loctite to all the nut threads involved in the boat lift and I safety wired the shackle pins as well. I've had no problems since then.
Before I end this blog I would just like to write a note of appreciation to Custom Docks and the sale person there (Scott). His knowledge of boat lifts was very helpful in the design and construction of the boat lift. He made the success of the project possible and it shows that by using Custom Docks as a supplier of all the boat lift/house materials a person who has never built a boat lift before can accomplish the job. It also helped to have plenty of example installations around the neighborhood for reference.
Having successfully solved the puzzle of the boat lift, it was time to wrap the project up by finishing the roof. Find out in the next blog if I blew my budget and exceeded the amount a contractor would charge to do the project.
Happy Building!
The Dr.
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